W9AUB / W9PUC Alumni Group
of the
Purdue Calumet Amateur Radio Society

The Purdue Calumet Amateur Radio Society was originally chartered in 1960 by Charter Members,
Bruce Balsley, W9OTN, Ed Guzis, W9PJK (now W9TW), Howard Smith (callsign?), and Doug Bastian
(callsign?). Faculty Member Bill Reed, W9RWN (SK) is believed to be the first club callsign trustee and Richard Bucich,
W9CIG (SK) was also an advisor. The club submitted an application for a club callsign and received W9AUB. The first transmitter
was a World War II surplus Meisner 150 that was loaned to the club for about six months. Charter member
Bruce, W9OTN, describes this transmitter as being the size of a coffin and weighing 200 pounds!
The antenna was a 160 meter dipole. By 1961, the club was using a Hallicrafters SX-100 Receiver and a Heathkit DX-40
transmitter into a dipole and longwire antenna. This was the station setup when John Williamson, KN9HFE (now WØNOV) made
his first QSO using the W9AUB club call in October 1961 with WN9AVT (also his first QSO, now K9LA... see QSL card below.) There was
very few formal meetings in the early years. The station was available for any club member to drop in and operate when they
had extra time. Thanks to Bruce, W9OTN for providing this information.

The club president in 1990 was John Phillips, KA9PGC.

The club president from about 1992-94 was Chad McClellan, KA9YLV. Chad received a bachelor's degree, so he may have been
involved even earlier. He operated a very popular packet BBS in St. John for many years. Chad became a Silent Key on Feb. 17, 2001,
at age 28, according to
his obituary.

Stan Vandiver, W4SV, was president of the club from 1994-96. Ralph Skoog, W9OCH (SK) was the station
trustee and club advisor. The club station was fully functional and available for our use. Equipment included a Ten-Tec Corsair II
on HF, and an Icom IC-228H and AEA PK-232 for 2 meter voice and packet. Packet was still pretty popular at the time, and for awhile
Stan maintained a JNOS BBS and packet node in a cabinet on the top floor of the Potter Building. The
IPHAM packet node ran 1200 baud on 145.57 MHz and 9600 baud on 430.55 MHz. Antennas available were a tri-band beam and
40/80m dipoles for HF, and a 4-element beam for 2 meters. Stan kept a relationship with the school and
radio club for a couple more years after graduation and maintained the EET Department website until 1998. It was during this
post-graduation period that Stan suggested to Professor Skoog that they request the vanity call W9PUC
for the club station: W9 PurdueUniversityCalumet
(issued 10-1-1997).

Ed Perosky, K9TZT, has been the W9PUC station trustee from 2001-present.

The club president in 2002 was Mark Skowronski, K9MQ, and in 2003 the president was Mike Wilder, KB9FUM. Mark led the way to
restarting the club after about 4 years of inactivity. During Mark and Mike's time, the PCARS was recognized as an ARRL Special
Service Club, regular VE Testing sessions were conducted on campus resulting in many new hams, and a very special contact was made
with Expedition 7 crew member Ed Lu, KC5WKJ, on board the International Space Station on June 26, 2003. Mark was the control operator
for that QSO which allowed a number of summer space camp students from the Challenger Learning Center to ask questions of the astronaut.
The contact was covered by local news media and the NWI Times has a report here.

1961 W9AUB QSL provided by Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA

1970's Field Day at W9AUB
Dr. Charles Miller, K9HH, is on the left. (Click for larger image)

W9AUB / W9PUC callsign tracking

(Thanks K9LA, K9MQ, KF9EX, W9DN, and W4SV for the callbook lookups and research.)